A former Greater Naples Fire Rescue District officer who sued the district and its fire chief last year, alleging she was subjected to years of "repeated sexual harassment" by colleagues, could receive $82,500 from the fire district, according to a draft settlement agreement.
The district's board of commissioners is scheduled to vote on authorizing a payment of $17,500 from its reserves at its Tuesday meeting, according to the meeting's agenda. - PUB DATE: 11/14/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Naples Daily News
When every second counts, a fire sprinkler system can be a live saver but most homes in North Texas do not have them.
The Texas State Fire Marshal says every home in Texas should have fire sprinklers but state lawmakers have refused to make it a requirement for new homes.
In fact, state lawmakers have made it illegal for Texas cities to mandate sprinklers be installed in all new single-family homes. - PUB DATE: 11/14/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: CBS Dallas Fort Worth
The firefighters’ union is seeking an injunction in state Supreme Court to block the city from a new policy that prohibits firefighters from being called into work when their colleagues call in sick.
The City Council last week decided in executive session to establish a new policy that will not allow firefighters to be brought into work when others call in sick, a move that City Manager Sharon A. - PUB DATE: 11/14/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Watertown Daily Times
The Charlottesville Fire Department is in the process of purchasing its first ambulance in more than 50 years.
The addition to the department's fleet will help meet a growing demand to provide around-the-clock medical services in the city.
The last time the CFD had its own ambulance was in the 1950s. - PUB DATE: 11/14/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WVIR-TV NBC29
It was a routine call for the Springfield Fire Company: a T-bone accident with minor injuries.
In the early afternoon of Nov. 6, six firefighters arrived at the Sproul Road entrance to the Target store at Springfield Mall and met the Blackburn family.
Mother Krista, father Kevin, 5-year-old Isaiah, and 2-year-old Aria, of Kannapolis, N. - PUB DATE: 11/14/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Philly.com
A volunteer firefighter was killed at the scene of a crash Friday night after being "run over" by another responding firefighter who was allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol.
Colby Blake, 26, of Cannelburg was arrested Friday and preliminarily charged with operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated causing death, and reckless driving. - PUB DATE: 11/13/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Courier & Press
A Fairborn firefighter-paramedic driving a suspected overdose patient to the hospital Thursday night began showing symptoms of an overdose himself, prompting his partner to jump into action and stop the ambulance in the middle of the road.
This is the latest — and perhaps most dramatic — case of a public safety employee exposed to an opioid. - PUB DATE: 11/13/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: mydaytondailynews.com
Federal authorities knew technology used to broadcast official emergency warnings from cell towers was outdated years before deadly fires ignited last month in Sonoma County and throughout Northern California, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee for their lives, many with no warning.
Messages were too short, didn’t support web links and had the potential to be broadcast too widely, according to Federal Communication Commission members charged with regulating how cellphone companies issue government warnings. - PUB DATE: 11/13/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Press Democrat
When EMT Yadira Arroyo was killed March 16 by a crazed man who stole her ambulance and ran her down, she didn’t qualify for line-of-duty death benefit.
Arroyo, 44, a veteran of 14 years, left behind the five boys she was supporting on her Emergency Medical Service salary: $48,000 base pay, $66,000 with overtime. - PUB DATE: 11/13/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News
At 64, Jim Aulbaugh has long been eligible to retire from Dallas Fire-Rescue. He loved working too much to call it quits, but he says he might have to now.
A new state law aimed at fixing the ailing pension fund contains a provision -- a vestigial part of the original proposed fix -- that could cause him and dozens of other police and firefighters to finally leave their shrinking departments in January. - PUB DATE: 11/13/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Dallas News
The Fire Department no longer will be able to have firefighters fill in for colleagues who call in sick, a move that City Manager Sharon A. Addison admits violates the union contract.
Ms. Addison directed Fire Chief Dale C. Herman on Wednesday morning that firefighters cannot be called into work to fill in for their colleagues who are absent because of illness. - PUB DATE: 11/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Watertown Daily Times
After a weekslong investigation, Anchorage fire officials still can't say for sure what caused a firefighter to fall more than 70 feet from a fire truck ladder in June. No one, not even security cameras, saw the fall that left 29-year-old Anchorage firefighter and paramedic Ben Schultz hospitalized with a traumatic brain injury. - PUB DATE: 11/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Alaska Dispatch News
An infant was left in a Michigan City Safe Haven Baby Box late Tuesday night. Emergency responders were dispatched to the Coolspring Township Volunteer Fire Department at 10:24 p.m. after receiving an alert from the box.
Coolspring Fire Chief Mick Pawlik arrived at the station within five minutes and found the newborn infant. - PUB DATE: 11/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WNDU-TV NBC 16 South Bend
A former Travis County firefighter who sought employment with the Austin Fire Department is now suing the city of Austin and Austin Fire Chief Rhoda Mae Kerr, arguing that he wasn’t hired because of his role in negotiations to expand AFD’s jurisdiction.
Andrew Garcia, the former union president for the Travis County Emergency Services District 4, claims in his lawsuit he was discriminated against because of his input in Austin City Council discussions regarding a possible merger between ESD 4 and the Austin Fire Department. - PUB DATE: 11/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Austin American-Statesman
VIDEO - When Terry Sanders saw the glow on the horizon on Oct. 8, and felt the heavy wind in his face, he knew there was trouble.
But the Santa Rosa resident and Oakland firefighter didn’t realize the magnitude until he headed a few hundred feet down the road from his home to talk to the only man left at Fire Station 5. - PUB DATE: 11/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1
When Lester Parker’s daughter visited him on Christmas Eve, family pictures decorated his television.
Three days later, his daughter came back to take Parker and his wife to the airport. They were headed to Las Vegas to celebrate their anniversary.
While inside to help load luggage, Parker's daughter noticed the pictures had been taken down and cabinets that were once full were nearly empty. - PUB DATE: 11/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Cincinnati Enquirer & Cincinnati.com
The Salt Lake City Public Service Commission has issued a blistering report regarding the lack of evidence and apparent manufactured allegations by fire department brass in the demotion of the city’s first female battalion chief.
The commission said that it appeared Assistant Fire Chief Robert McMicken was “looking for reasons” to discipline Martha Ellis, a 22-year-veteran firefighter. - PUB DATE: 11/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Salt Lake Tribune
A Utica city firefighter who is alleging discrimination based on his gender and religious beliefs has filed an amended civil complaint with the help of new religious-rights lawyers
John Brooks, son of former Utica Fire Chief Russell Brooks, said in court papers he's been subjected to a hostile work environment, threatened with disciplinary action, harassed and ridiculed because he refuses to cut his hair. - PUB DATE: 11/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Syracuse Post-Standard & Syracuse.com
Things have returned to some degree of normalcy for the Central Yavapai Fire District board now that a six-month internal conflict has come to a definitive close.
On March 14, Central Arizona Fire and Medical Authority (CAFMA) Chief Scott Freitag lodged a written complaint against ViciLee Jacobs, a member of the CYFD board, claiming she had made “unsubstantiated accusations” against him and his command staff, some of which he warned were potentially defamatory. - PUB DATE: 11/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Daily Courier
“If you had not been here and we hadn’t had that rain, we don’t know what would have happened to our little town,” said Pigeon Forge City Manager Earlene Teaster.
She was speaking before a group of first responders from fire and rescue departments throughout Tennessee who came to Sevier County to battle the fire that swept through the area on Nov. - PUB DATE: 11/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Knoxville News Sentinel
